Home Sweet Home?

November 3, 1985|By Joe Kilsheimer

Whoever coined that phrase didn't know about radon. It's a low-level radioactive gas that occurs naturally in the earth, and it may be infiltrating houses throughout the country. One expert says radon's potential dangers are relative: ''If you smoke cigarettes and don't worry about it, don't worry about radon. But if you worry about smoking or radiation of any kind, you . . . should be worried about radon.'' Health authorities link radon to lung cancer and leukemia and blame it for between 5,000 and 20,000 deaths a year. Florida's biggest radon concentrations lie in the phosphate mining areas in Polk and Hillsborough counties. But no one really knows how big Florida's radon problem is, said Harlan Keaton, of the Office of Radiation Control for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Orlando. Phosphate pockets could occur anywhere in Central Florida and residents wouldn't know it, Keaton said. A kit, which measures the radon using an absorbent charcoal trap, is available by sending for $12 to Radon Project, Physics Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh 15260.